The Knackered Teacher

Week 30 Trends Influencing New Zealand For this weeks blog I am going to analyse a trend that is influencing and shaping NZ education, that is relevant to my current practice. I will then, critique and evaluate my practice in the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives and I will discuss these implications using Rolfe’s (2001) reflective model. Image from Core-ed.org, (2018) What? A trend that is highly relevant to my daily practice and influencing and shaping NZ education in schools is Digital Learning and bring your own device (BYOD) programme. I teach Year 5 and since beginning my Mindlab journey, I have found that I am incorporating digital technologies into almost every subject where and when relevant and appropriate. This has opened up a whole new world of learning and experiences that has allowed my learners to work collaboratively and choose and show their learning through a variety of mediums and platfo...

Week 29 Using social online networks in my professional development In this weeks post I will be using the Jay and Johnson’s (2002) reflection model to reflect on how social media is being used in my professional development. Descriptive I have been using social media tools such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram for the past 12 years to connect to family and friends around the world. I have also used limited, various social media as a teaching tool in the classroom, however it wasn’t until this year, when I changed levels from year 1 to year 5 students that I have that I truly realised it’s potential and started using social media to inform my teaching practice and connect to social networks. This has opened up a whole new world for me and I now connect daily to see what’s happening  globally in the ‘teaching world’, ask questions and find new ideas to bring into the classroom. Comparative After filing out the social media survey, it got me thinking about h...

Week 28 Influence of Law & Ethics in Practice This weeks post relates to the Influence of Law and Ethics in Practice.  I will be reflecting on an issue I faced with Blurred personal and professional boundaries in electronic communication.  I will discuss the implications of the above using Rolfe’s (2001) reflective model. What? The dilemma: Blurred personal and professional boundaries in electronic communication I teach at a school that my own children attend and had (previously) befriended some of my children’s friends mums through various social networks. This year I have changed levels and I am now teaching some of my daughters friends and they are now contacting me via social communication networks in regards to classroom issues and other school-related issues. I feel that my position as friend and Teacher at the school is becoming blurred and being taken advantage of and that the means of communication they have chosen ie; Facebook, text and Messeng...

Deep level conversations in Collaborative Inquiry Groups Teacher Inquiry Assessment 2 (Research 2) Last night at our Staff Meeting, our Principal shared a reading about Leading Deep Conversations in Collaborative Inquiry Groups by Tamara Holmlund Nelson, Angie Dueel, David Slavit and Annie Kennedy. The article raised some good points and questions about how we collaborate and communicate with our colleagues within our Collaborative Inquiry Groups. It's hard to find the time to focus specifically on and have professional and deep level discussions about our students learning. It highlights some good points and raises some further questions; Do we need a tool to guide the way in which we engage with our colleagues and the way we talk about student learning/teaching? How can we foster, support and engage in deeper level collaborative conversations? Do we need outside help to achieve this?

What would I like to improve? My kids confidence in themselves What am I perplexed by? Why do my children not see their worth? - they ‘give-up” instead of trying! What am I really curious about? How you can encourage leadership for the lower-level learners What do I think would really make a difference? Growth Mindset What is something I would like to change? Leader and followership - all kids having a go! What would happen to my students’ learning if I did _______? How can I implement A growth mindset (Rather than just talking about it with the kids ? Trust/collaborative games? How can I improve My students growth mindset ? Look up John W Creswell for Research informed practice. I think I have chosen… Growth Mindset/Mana potential - Sarah Growth Mindset/Leadership/Followership - Susan The potential of Kaupapa Māori Levels most suited to “Growth Mindset” Tino Rangatiratanga - The Principle of Self-determination The principle of tino r...

Week 19 - Community of Practice Descriptive Stage For this task I have chosen two topics which I feel go hand in hand and that I feel quite inspired about. Implementing Technology innovation in the classroom. 21st Century Skills What is a Community of Practice (COP)? According to Cultivating communities of practice: Making them grow (Knox, B. 2009), a COP is ‘a group of people who share a passion for something they know how to do, who interact regularly in order to learn how to do it better.’ This allows people in the COP to create, expand and exchange knowledge, allowing individual capabilities to be further developed. There are three underlying elements that contribute to the definition of a COP as defined by Wenger (2000); joint enterprise (domain), mutual agreement (community) and shared repertoire (practice). By engaging in a COP with fellow teaching peers, this would allow me another avenue to follow and share technology innovations and tap int...

L ooking back on the past 17 weeks of Mindlab and with changing my year level this year, I realise I have made a number of changes to my teaching practice and re-thought my role as a Teacher in the classroom, content, content delivery and the learners role. I have used various digital technologies and apps to not only teach my lessons,  but to make them purposeful, authentic and engaging. I have been ‘training’ my learners how to use different apps for different purposes so that eventually they can take the lead in their learning and decide how they present their work. W e adopted a more blended and collaborative learning approach in the classroom which resulted in more student engagement and ownership from the students.  I have stepped back from being the Teacher who teaches to the learners, to becoming the ‘facilitator’ of their learning - this is not something I had done before having come from teaching 5 years olds for the past 4 years and always being at the ...